Construction and home improvement projects often utilize structural members, such as studs or beams, hidden behind wallboards to provide structural support for mounting objects to a wall. Handheld location sensors, commonly referred to as stud finders, have been developed to accomplish this purpose. Typically, stud finders are used to locate a hidden beam or stud to serve as a mounting point for an object and the area is then marked with a pencil. Thereafter, a power tool, such as a drill, is used to drill a hole or drive a fastener through the wallboard into the hidden beam or stud at the marked location.
Many projects, such as hanging a shelf or hanging multiple picture frames, utilize a plurality of holes and/or fasteners that are aligned horizontally. These projects typically require that multiple framing studs to be located behind a wallboard. To perform these projects, a stud finder is used to locate the framing studs that are to be used to provide structural support. An alignment device, such as a laser level, is then typically used to provide a horizontal reference to facilitate a desired alignment. Using the horizontal reference, the framing studs are marked at appropriate locations. The power drill is then used to drill holes or drive fasteners into the studs at the marked locations. Because stud finders, laser levels, and power drills are typically provided as separate tools, an operator of these tools has to pick up and put down a different tool to perform each task.
Handheld tools that incorporate both a stud finder and a laser level are known. However, these tools still require an operator to use multiple tools to drill holes and/or drive fasteners in multiple studs that are aligned horizontally. A stud finder and laser level tool has been integrated onto a power tool. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,851,487 discloses location sensor and laser level device that is mounted onto a power tool, such as a drill or a nail gun. The location sensor and the laser level device in U.S. Pat. No. 6,851,487, however, require that the tool be repositioned or reoriented after locating a stud and finding the desired alignment to drive a fastener, such as a nail or screw, into the stud.
What is needed is a power drill having a stud finder and laser level that is integrated onto the tool that enables a series of horizontally aligned holes to be drilled into the structural members hidden behind a wallboard without having to pause to mark the area with a pencil, manipulate or reorient the tool in hand, and/or pick up a different tool.